A room for making anything: Inside MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms

This article was taken from the November 2012
issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in
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What is the best way to create objects from bits? That's a key
question at the Media Lab's Center
for Bits and Atoms (CBA), where researchers explore new ways to
turn digital information (bits) into physical objects (atoms) and
vice-versa.

"One of the core themes is the idea of digitising fabrication,"
says Neil Gershenfeld, the
CBA's director. "That's not only computers controlling tools; it's
also about putting programs into materials themselves." To that
end, Gershenfeld and his colleagues have programmed self-assembling
strings of robotic modules and are now using biological proteins to
create self-assembling nanostructures.

The CBA is home to an impressive collection of machines. In
fact, it's the ultimate workshop, and it's freely available to
researchers and students. "The freedom of access means they get
used in a very different way from conventional settings," says
Gershenfeld. "People get to play around more, which encourages
speculative work." Your lab open day starts here.